"This 12-hour history…is a strong candidate for the most beautiful program ever to air on American television. It's the Burns effort that most closely rivals
The Civil War, his masterpiece."
Hal Boedeker, The Orlando Sentinel

On Sunday night, millions of Americans tuned in to PBS and fell in love again with
their national parks. The National Park Foundation is proud to be a core
partner and funder of Ken Burns' THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA. If you enjoyed
episodes one and two, stay tuned all week for new episodes every night.

If you missed the first episodes,, you can watch
them now on pbs.org/nationalparks. After you’ve watched the latest episode, visit www.nationalparks.org/bestidea to enter our Best Idea Trivia Contest where you can test your knowledge of the parks and win great prizes too. A new trivia question and a new chance to win will be posted just before each of the six episodes.

The national parks belong to
everyone, but the special places and
moments you find and create within
them are entirely your own. Now you can share your most indelible memories with the world. Visit nationalparks.org and mark the spots in America’s national parks that mean the most to you.

The National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national
parks, works to strengthen the enduring connection between the American people
and their parks and to provide support to the National Park Service by raising
private funds, making strategic grants, creating innovative partnerships and
increasing public awareness. NPF is proud to be a major funder of the new Ken
Burns documentary series, THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA
and congratulates Florentine Films and PBS for producing this historic film.

On
September 26, countless Americans
gathered in their national parks to
help make Americas Best Idea even
better. As a core partner and funder
of the Ken Burns documentary, THE
NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA,
the National Park Foundation and the
National Park Service worked with
park friends groups, partners and funders to celebrate the film and its
premiere.

More than 200 national parks across the country hosted visitors and volunteers
for a special day of service and celebration.

Highlights included:

National Capital Area Parks The 14 national parks of the National
Capital Region hosted their own volunteer and special interpretive activities
for the community throughout the day. Service projects varied by site and
included trail projects, river clean-ups and exotic plant removal. The service
day concluded with a celebration on the Ellipse and a live appearance by
Ken Burns.

Rocky Mountain National Park Park volunteers built a new trail along the
Continental Divide on the western side of the park. In the evening, the National Park
Foundation, Rocky Mountain PBS and etown.org celebrated Ken Burns and his new
documentary at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder. The program included interviews with
NPF president and CEO Neil Mulholland and acclaimed photographer John Fielder and live performances of
music from the documentary.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monuments In an early kick-off to
National Public Lands Day, the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis
Island opened to the public for a special evening tour featuring the special
sneak peek for the first time ever on September 24 and 25.

Dan Wenk, the acting director of the National Park Service, had the following words about the film: "In the way only they can do, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan are reinvigorating the American people's love of their national parks. The National Park Service welcomes this opportunity to strengthen our relationships with park visitors, introduce them to all of the parks – there are 391 of them – and explain how the National Park Service helps citizens revitalize their communities. Making America's Best Idea even better is our job. We invite all Americans to come out for a visit, embrace their ownership of national parks, and join us in caring for these special places."

NPF supporters including long-time proud partner Unilever, as well as Merrell,
helped to sponsor the national celebration as well as host complementary events
in cities across the country. Learn more at
www.nps.gov/AmericasBestIdea.

Heroes of Flight 93
Honored Across the Nation

The
Flight 93 National
Memorial Campaign and the Flight 93 Partners marked the eighth anniversary
of September 11, 2001 and Flight 93 with a number of outreach and fund-raising
activities. With the solemn field where Flight 93 crashed eight years

ago in the background, more than 4,500 people gathered to remember the courage
of the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
Secretary Ken Salazar, Senator
Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Governor Ed
Rendell, National Park Foundation
Board member General Tommy Franks
and former governor Tom Ridge were among those who shared
their unique perspectives on Flight
93 culminating in keynote remarks by
General Colin Powell. Country music
entertainer Trace Adkins performed
the National Anthem, and family
members and community leaders read
aloud the names of the passengers
and crew at 10:03 a.m., the time when
Flight 93 crashed.

Across the nation, additional events
commemorating the Heroes of Flight
93 included:

In cities and towns along the way, they were greeted by other motorcyclists and
police escorts with a "traveling temporary memorial" that collected tributes to
the passengers and crew." Also, please change the total raised to $107,000.

More than 600 guests attended 9/11 We Will Never Forget in Pittsburgh, PA.
Co-hosted by The Pittsburgh Steelers, the reception and dinner were captained by
former Steelers greats Rocky Bleier and Franco Harris, National Park Foundation
President and CEO Neil Mulholland, and Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign
Chairman Chris Sullivan. The event raised more that $240,000 for the Campaign.

One of the likely targets of Flight 93 was the U.S. Capitol, where some 2,000
staff and 30,000 visitors can be found every day. In recognition of
the life-saving heroism of the passengers and crew, an impressive bronze plaque
bearing their names was dedicated just outside the Capitol’s Rotunda.

Within weeks of the crash of Flight 93, Pennsylvania State Senator Jane Orie
launched Hearts of Steel, a campaign to raise funds to support building a new
memorial. After selling more than 100,000 bracelets made from Pennsylvania
steel, $1.1 million was gifted to the Campaign.

An up-to-date listing of these and other activities to commemorate Flight 93 and
9/11, as well as information about supporting the Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign,
can be found on the newly redesigned website,
honorflight93.org, on
Facebook, on
Twitter
and on
YouTube.

Explore Your Parks: Download the National
Park Owner's Guide

The National Park Foundation's
Owner's Guide is designed to make
your national park experience better
than ever. Full of advice about what
to see and do including maps of
every state and links to each
national park's website, the Owner's
Guide offers an insider's view of
the special places we love and the
opportunity to experience them to
their fullest.
Download an Owner's
Guide for free, and explore your
parks as you never have before.

In the News

Expedia

Expedia.com® and the
National Park
Foundation have announced the launch
of a
new online resource to help
travelers plan and book vacations to
America’s national parks. The site
provides visitors with information
about the national parks and nearby
lodging options available on Expedia.com, as well as suggestions
for long-weekend itineraries and
in-depth articles on “Can’t-Miss
National Parks” like Grand Canyon
and Olympic. The site also features
downloadable park maps and other
editorial content from the National
Park Foundation.

Expedia is also offering a chance to win a VIP vacation to Yosemite National Park. Simply book a stay at
any participating Starwood Hotels &
Resorts property – including brands
such as Westin, Sheraton and W – by
October 15, for travel through
October 31, 2009, and you will be
automatically entered to win the grand
prize, which includes
airfare and VIP tours of Yosemite.
Travelers may also win one of 20
first prize autographed copies of
The National Parks: America’s Best
Idea by Dayton Duncan.

America’s Best Idea Grants

TheNational Park
FoundationandUnilever
will continue to
help reach traditionally underserved groups
and empower them to create strong, lasting
bonds of stewardship with the national parks
– continuing the tradition of a diverse
American public working together to preserve
and enhance the legacy of “America’s Best
Idea.” The inaugural
America’s Best Idea
Grants provided $500,000 for outreach
efforts in 35 national parks.

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